tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5255299705122830812.post4888897109671018688..comments2017-09-22T20:21:36.080+09:00Comments on What a Horrible Night to Have a Curse...: Sand in the BoxDennis Laffeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03053699552003336733noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5255299705122830812.post-34039980945046318612017-04-07T11:36:24.174+09:002017-04-07T11:36:24.174+09:00Right on. Sounds like a fun game. Look forward to ...Right on. Sounds like a fun game. Look forward to hearing how it goes!<br /><br />Best<br /><br />TorTor Ericksonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09495382772340743016noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5255299705122830812.post-60734885465940419922017-04-07T10:23:02.220+09:002017-04-07T10:23:02.220+09:00Hey Tor, thanks for letting me know how it went wi...Hey Tor, thanks for letting me know how it went with your group. That&#39;s definitely something to think about. I&#39;d been considering how to set up the map, and I did plan to place mostly small dungeons around, but have one larger dungeon per significant region. Some modules, though, like the Caves of Chaos or sections of The Forbidden City, could easily be divided up into smaller dungeons in different areas.<br /><br />I&#39;m likely going to have a more stable group, as I know at least my son will be able to attend every session, but I&#39;ve already had a few friends express interest in showing up every now and then when they&#39;re available. If I have a stable core group of 2 or 3, plus a few players who show up when they can, they might be able to get more mileage out of larger dungeons. I doubt I&#39;ll throw in anything as massive as Undermountain or Thracia. I&#39;ve done the megadungeon campaign, and it was fun, but I&#39;m itching for something different this time. <br /><br />So again, thanks for the advice. I&#39;ll be sure to keep the dungeons small, or else run the game in a way that lets the players get in and out of them as necessary.Dennis Laffeyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03053699552003336733noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5255299705122830812.post-62335346830295140482017-04-07T05:49:43.237+09:002017-04-07T05:49:43.237+09:00Hey Dennis,
I just finished a five month West Mar...Hey Dennis,<br /><br />I just finished a five month West Marches run using BECMI rules and we had a blast. My goals were to get back into DnD (which I hadn&#39;t played for decades), give the old red box a try for nostalgia reasons (was it as good as I remembered from 1989?), try out some of this old school stuff I&#39;d been reading about, and introduce as many people as possible to role playing in my local area. <br /><br />It was successful on all fronts (especially the last: I think something like 20-30 people gave it a try during that time; also cool was that more than half of them were women, which was not how it was when I played DnD in middle school).<br /><br />However, there are a couple of things I would do differently, and while most of them are specific to running a BECMI game, there is one thing that cuts across rules sets.<br /><br />Namely, trying to combine wilderness exploration and large dungeons in the same game. In our experience, this just provided too many directions to go at once, and probably detracted from each of them a little. <br /><br />In other words, wilderness exploration is about going wide, and mega dungeons are about going deep, and it&#39;s hard to do both at the same time. This is especially true if you embrace one of the hallmarks of West Marching which is an irregular group with loose standards for participation. <br /><br />In our group, even the most dedicated players only were attending 2/3 of the sessions at most, and this greatly slowed down the rate of both wilderness and dungeon exploration for any given individual. <br /><br />If I were to do it again I would pick one or the other. Meaning, either have the game be about one large dungeon (we used Caverns of Thracia and it was great), or use an interesting wilderness spotted with a bunch of tiny dungeons (meaning, you basically explore a dungeon in one session or less:Prison of the Hated Pretender was a good example of this for us). <br /><br />This means they get to the good stuff of the dungeon, some of the real weirdness and story and interesting monsters and treasure, without having to go back again and again, which in our experience did not happen in this style of game. <br /><br />Actually, as I&#39;m writing this, I think I realize what I would have done if I went back: I would have had the town, and Thracia, and nothing else. <br /><br />What I didn&#39;t realize going in was that a big, well-developed dungeon like Thracia rewards and really requires repeated forays and deep delving, and with the massive smorgasbord of exploration options available in a wilderness oriented West March, players won&#39;t make this effort. <br /><br />Best <br /><br />TorTor Ericksonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09495382772340743016noreply@blogger.com